Ex Parte Sylvain

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Aug 20, 2013

10970590 (P.T.A.B. Aug. 20, 2013)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
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BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
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Ex parte DANY SYLVAIN1
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Appeal 2011-005244
Application 10/970,590
Technology Center 2600
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Before TONI R. SCHEINER, ERIC GRIMES, and
FRANCISCO C. PRATS, Administrative Patent Judges.

GRIMES, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL
This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 involving claims to a method
and system for routing an incoming telephone call, which have been rejected
for obviousness. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We reverse.

1 Appellant identifies the Real Party in Interest as Nortel Networks Limited
(Appeal Br. 1).
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STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Claims 1-6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15-26, 28, 30-33, and 35-44 are on appeal.
Claim 1 is illustrative and reads as follows:
1. A method for routing incoming calls comprising:
a) associating a plurality of telephony devices with at least one
zone;
b) detecting an incoming call intended for one of the plurality
of telephony devices;
c) determining, in response to detecting the incoming call, that
the one of the plurality of telephony devices is associated with the at
least one zone;
d) determining, in response to the determination that the one of
the plurality of telephony devices is associated with the at least one
zone, if a user associated with the plurality of telephony devices is
registered within the at least one zone; and
e) initiating an alert for the incoming call based on a call
processing rule associated with the at least one zone.

Claim 21, the only other independent claim on appeal, is directed to a
system comprising (a) a communication interface and (b) a control system
associated with the communication interface and adapted to carry out the
same steps recited in claim 1 (Appeal Br. 15 (Claims Appendix)).
The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as follows:
• Claims 1-3, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15-18, 21-23, 28, 30-33, 35-38, and 41-44
based on Goss,2 Pearson,3 and Lei4 (Answer 3-4);
• Claims 4-6 and 24-26 based on Goss, Pearson, Lei, and Dougherty5
(Answer 10); and

2 Goss, US 6,320,534 B1, issued Nov. 20, 2001.
3 Pearson et al., US 2005/0063528 A1, published Mar. 24, 2005.
4 Lei et al., US 2004/0203664 A1, published Oct. 14, 2004.
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• Claims 19, 20, 39, and 40 based on Goss, Pearson, Lei, and Kent6
(Answer 12).
Each of the rejections on appeal depends on the combination of Goss,
Pearson, and Lei. The Examiner finds that Goss discloses a method meeting
most of the limitations of claim 1, including “associating a plurality of
telephony devices with a zone,” “detecting an incoming call intended for one
of the plurality of telephony devices,” and “determining, in response to
detecting the incoming call, that the one of the plurality of telephony devices
is associated with the at least one zone” (Answer 4).
Appellant argues that the “claimed invention first determines a zone
based on the telephony device to which the call is directed,” while “the prior
art references cited by the Patent Office disclose methods and systems that
first find a location of a user, and then determine a phone based on the
location of the user” (Appeal Br. 8). That is, while claim 1
requires “detecting an incoming call intended for one of the
plurality of telephony devices[,]” . . . the referenced portions of
Goss disclose that an incoming phone call is directed to a
“reach” number that is not associated with any phone. The
“reach” number is merely a means of triggering a search for a
user.
(Id. at 9.)
We agree with Appellant that the Examiner has not adequately shown
that a person of ordinary skill in the art would have understood Goss’
method to include the disputed steps of claim 1. The Specification describes

5 Dougherty et al., US 6,141,556, issued Oct. 31, 2000.
6 Kent, Jr. et al., US 2005/0153699 A1, published July 14, 2005.
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a method of automatically routing a telephone call to a specific telephony
device in a given location, based on a user’s preference (Spec. 1-2, ¶¶ 5-6).
Thus, if the user has multiple telephony devices associated with
a given location and the user is at that location, an incoming
call may be routed to one or more of the telephony devices.
Otherwise, if the user is not at the location, the incoming call
may proceed in normal course or may be processed as desired
based on the user not being at the location.
(Id. at 2, ¶ 6.) “[A]n exact location or area about a certain location is
referred to as a zone.” (Id. at 3, ¶ 15.)
More specifically, “[f]or a given zone 12, one or more telephony
devices, which are associated with a particular user, are defined” (id. at 4,
¶ 16). For example, a circuit-switched telephone, a mobile terminal, a voice-
over-packet (VoP) telephone and a VoP communication client may all be
associated with the same zone: “For the present invention, incoming calls
intended for any one of these devices may be controlled and rerouted to
another of these telephony devices based on the relative location of the
called party associated with the telephony devices.” (Id. at 4-5, ¶ 17.)
“[D]ifferent call processing rules may be implemented based on the zone in
which the user is located” (id. at 2, ¶ 6).
Thus, claim 1 requires associating a plurality of telephony devices
with a given zone (claim 1, step (a)) – which is an “exact location or area
about a certain location” (Spec. 3, ¶ 15) – then detecting an incoming call
that is intended for one of those devices that are associated with the zone
(claim 1, step (b)) and determining that the called device is associated with
the given zone (claim 1, step (c)).
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As Appellant has pointed out, these steps differ from those in the
method described by Goss. Goss states that in some known call routing
methods, subscribers are provided
a new telephone number, hereafter referred to as a ‘reach
number’. Each subscriber conveys his reach number to callers
as his only telephone number. When a call is directed to a
subscriber’s reach number, telephone equipment routes the call
to prestored, subscriber-specified telephone numbers.
(Goss, col. 1, ll. 13-18.)
Goss’ system similarly includes “a database 30 which stores a
subscriber’s reach number along with a corresponding list of subscriber-
supplied telephone numbers with associated locations” (id. at col. 3,
ll. 43-46). Goss’ system also includes “an active location determining
system” that includes “location determining device 42 [which] interacts with
or determines position from either a Global Positioning System (GPS) or a
Local Positioning System (LPS) as is known in the art” (id. at col. 3, ll. 58-
66).
When the processor in Goss’ system “recognizes that the incoming
call is directed to a subscriber’s reach number, . . . [it] directs the wireless
network transceiver 40 to transmit an interrogation message over a wide area
for receipt by the subscriber’s location determining device 42” (id. at col. 5,
ll. 2-7). If a response from location determining device 42 is received, the
processor accesses a database to compare the location of the subscriber with
the locations of subscriber-specified telephones and routes the call to a
telephone in proximity to the subscriber (id. at col. 5, ll. 15-26).
We agree with Appellant that Goss’ method does not involve
detecting an incoming call intended for a telephony device that is associated
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with a specific zone, as recited in claim 1. Rather, Goss’ method involves
detecting an incoming call directed to a reach number, which is associated
with a specific subscriber rather than with a telephony device in a specific
zone. In Goss’ method, the call to the reach number triggers a search for the
subscriber’s location and the call is then routed to a telephone near that
location.
Thus, Goss’ method associates telephones with a particular reach
number, not a particular zone, and routes the call to whichever telephone, in
whichever zone, is close to the subscriber’s current location. In contrast,
claim 1 requires detecting whether a call is intended for a telephony device
in a particular zone and, if the user is located within that zone, routing the
call to a desired device within the specific zone that was originally called.
The Examiner has not persuasively established that the claimed steps are
disclosed by or would have been obvious based on the method described by
Goss, alone or combined with Pearson and Lei.
SUMMARY
We reverse all of the rejections on appeal.

REVERSED

cdc